Coming into the Western Conference Finals, both the Phoenix Suns and the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers were riding high after being tested in the first round and pulling off a sweep in the second round. Despite both teams coming into their own in the second round of the playoffs, the Lakers have been able to really change public opinion by looking more and more like the team that won the NBA title last season.

Even though the Phoenix Suns have had somewhat of a breakout year, after struggling for the past two seasons, Steve Nash and company seemed to be overwhelmed by the defending champs in game one of the Western Conference Finals.

The consensus before this series was that the Los Angeles Lakers would be the team to advance, but many people believed that the Phoenix Suns would give them a run for their money.

In the first round, the Lakers were tested by the Oklahoma City Thunder and thought to have lost a step or two, but they regained their dominance towards the end of that series and really got back to form in the sweep of the Utah Jazz in the second round.

Not only was there a lot of questions on whether or not Kobe Bryant and company could keep up with the pace of the Phoenix Suns in game one of the Western Conference Finals, but Kobe’s injury problems started to flare up once again as he had his right knee drained of a significant amount of fluid. Despite all the injury reports and doubts surrounding Kobe Bryant heading into game one, the Black Mamba absolutely blew up and destroyed the Phoenix Suns with a playoff-high 40 points.

Game two will almost certainly be a much different game, but the result will be the same in my opinion as the defending champs are obviously the better team in this series.

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